Morning journal and courier., 1887-06-04
THE BULGARIAN EXECUTIONS.
Horrible Butchery of the Leaders O.
 tAe Recent Patriotic Revolt.

Horrible Butchefy of the Leaders Of the Recent Patriotic Revolt.
 Odessa Letter to the London News1
 I have had during the last few days sev- eral conversations with M. Gueroff, Bull
 garian deputy, and his daughter, Mme. Zelenogoroff, the widow of Captain Zelen- ogorof, who with eight others was shot at
 Rustchuk on February 22 by order of the
 regents. Mme. Zelenogoroff is young lady
 of some twenty years and of very consid-
 erable personal attractions. She assured
 me that there was no reason why the re- gents should have sequestrated her proper
 ty and issued a warrant of arrest against
 herself, but from what I gather Mime. Zel-
 enogoroff's saloon was the chief rendezvous
 of the conspirators. All the leaders shot
 on the 22d of February she admitted were assembled in her house ten days previous ly, but she asserted that she knew nothing
 of the meditated revolt. Mime. Zelenogor- off stated that she was not permitted by the regents order to visit her husband dur ing the three days imprisonment before the execution. She gained access, how ever, to his prison in disguise. She com plains bitterly of the manner of the execu- tions and if her statement be correct they were certainly carried out in shocking manner She said: "My husband and the rest were sentenced to death late on the evening of the 21st and shot at four o'clock the next morning. On that morning I was prestrated by illness, aud my husband had only time to write a few rapidly pencilled words before he was led out to his grave. I will show you the note, which, with this ring on my finger, are the only mementoes l
 now possess. This is what happened: The nine victims were placed before their shal- 1o, ,I,o ob oS han,
 four feet in length and a foot and half
 deep My husband refused to have his eyes
 bandaged and tore open the tunic of his un-
 form that it might not be riddled, saying
 that his coat was guilty of no treason. The
 firing party numbered ninety, and yet my
 husband was left unscathed after the first
 volley At the second and third discharge
 be was wounded and fell. Then the officer
 in charge advanced to give him the coup sde grace and emptied five chambers of his re-
 volver before the murder of my husband
 was completed. Then the crowd rushed in and tore the boots and clothes from the still warm bodies, which were pitched into
 too small graves and trodden down. My husbands feet were hacked off so that his poor mutilated corpse might be made to fit the grave. It was all very horrible. The dogs came in the fight and we had to set guardians over the graves. Subsequently we erected crosses and headstones, but they were demolished by the brutal and vindic- tive agents of the regents. Now things are quieter we have replaced the headstones." Mime. Zelenogorof had much to say about Prince Alexander. He was honorable, good
 natured and amiable, but his suitability, if it may be so termed, said Mme. Zelenogoroff, was carried to an extreme, which affected and injured his position. In the latter days of his reign not only many ladies, but off cers did not think of rising when the prince entered or left room. He was somewhat boyish in his amusements and would divert himself with a number of officers in all man. ner of schoolboy frolics. He lost caste by being intimate with those around him. Mme Zelenogorof observed, with much sad ness, that only month before the execution the judge who sent her husband and friends to their fate had dined at her table on the occasion of her birthday. The young wid- ows and families of five of the officers exe cuted at Rustchuk are now here. They are of course for the present pensionnaires of the Russian government. Mime. ZelenogoroH speaks very little Russian, but is fairly flu ent in French and German.